17 May, 2017

The
ongoing crises in Syria and Venezuela have been described by
mainstream media as the result of failed leadership. In truth, their
troubles are the result of U.S.-led regime change efforts
masquerading as humanitarian aid to control both nations’ lucrative
oil and gas industries.

by
Whitney Webb

Part
1

Separated by
thousands of miles and embroiled in ostensibly unique conflicts – a
“civil war” and a “political crisis,” respectively – the
troubling situations in both Syria and Venezuela share more
similarities than differences. These similarities owe largely to the
fact that the ultimate end game for both crises is a change in
national leadership or regime change.

Mainstream
media outlets have spun the situations in both countries to suggest
that regime change efforts are being led by ordinary Syrians and
Venezuelans. But a closer examination indicates that foreign
governments, particularly the U.S. and their allies, are
orchestrating the conflicts themselves, as they stand to gain the
most from regime change.

As was the
case in both nations, foreign governments set the stage for the
current crises well before they officially began. In Syria’s case,
a recently declassified CIA report shows that U.S. plans to
destabilize Syria date back to the late 1980s, with plans to remove
Hafez al-Assad — the father of Syria’s current President Bashar
al-Assad — from power. This plan was described as a means to weaken
Russia’s influence on the global oil and gas as well as the arms
market, as Syria was (and still is) Russia’s main Middle Eastern
ally.

Regarding
the current situation, U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks have
revealed that the U.S., along with its allies Israel and Saudi
Arabia, had begun planning the overthrow of the Assad government as
early as 2006 by funding pro-democracy groups that would encourage
regime change based on sectarian lines – despite the fact that
Syria’s “civil war” did not officially begin until 2011.

In the case
of oil-rich Venezuela, regime change efforts began almost as soon as
Hugo Chávez assumed power in 1998, as the rise of his leftist
government signaled an end to Venezuela’s once tight-knit
relationship with the U.S. government. To make matters worse for the
U.S., Chavez nationalized the nation’s oil industry, freeing it
from the control of foreign, particularly U.S. corporations. These
efforts ultimately led to a U.S.-led coup against Chávez in 2002
that ultimately failed. At the time of his death, Chávez claimed to
have uncovered 19 different attempts on his life by the West.

Though the
U.S. did not make any more attempts to overthrow Chavez following the
failed coup, the Venezuelan government has accused the U.S. of being
responsible for Chávez’s untimely death in 2013, claiming that
they induced cancer that claimed his life as a covert means of
assassination. Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, has been
fighting wave after wave of destabilization attempts since his
predecessor’s’ death.